Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Written by Bren O'Brien
Saturday's second stakes-winning double in the space of three months is set to prove a timely boost for Swettenham Stud's Toronado (Ire), who has 25 yearlings scheduled to go through the ring at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale.
The Team Hawkes-trained Masked Crusader, who has loomed as Toronado's most promising galloper for some time, broke his stakes duck in the G3 Southern Cross S. at Randwick, before the Darren McAuliffe-prepared Solaia got a deserved first black-type win in the Listed Challenge S. at Ascot.
The dual success follows Toronado's big day on the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington in November when Shelby Cobra and Affair To Remember both won stakes races.
"He has had five individual stakes winners in Australia and two of them have been doubles, so it seems when it rains it pours," Sam Matthews, Swettenham's Sales and Nominations Manager, said.
Masked Crusader's impressive pair of wins at Bendigo and then Randwick last autumn had him as one of the boom horses in the country in the autumn last year, but things didn't quite progress as planned through the spring.
In the typical manner of the Hawkes family, the Gilgai Farm product, who was purchased by Hawkes Racing and Cameron Cooke Bloodstock for $340,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale back in 2018, has been given time to develop, and they are now set to be rewarded after successfully elevating him to stakes company for the first time.
He unleashed a powerful finish to win the Group 3 contest by a widening 2l and is set up for a big autumn.
"He's always been the one that has been on people's radar and a horse that people have talked about. He has shown his true colours," Matthews said.
"Last prep he had a few excuses, but on Saturday, his true ability came through. He's going to be a very good horse and I even think he'd be better suited on a drier track. He's potentially up to Group 1 level on the drier track. It's fantastic for Rick (Jamieson) and for Rupert (Legh) and all the owners to see him break through."
Sam Matthews (right)
Solaia is a homebred 3-year-old filly who has been placed in stakes company in Western Australia before and looks to have taken substantial improvement, after recording a comfortable win in the Challenge S. over 1500 metres at her 12th start.
"She is an interesting one, she was one of the first we had heard of that was going pretty good over there," Matthews said.
"I know Darren McAuliffe always had a pretty high opinion of her. She has always been up and around the mark, but to win and win emphatically just topped off the day."
Solaia is out of Isola Blu (Blackfriars), the metropolitan-winning half-sister to Group 2 winner Goon Serpent (Reset) and a direct descendant from the G1 WA Derby winner Capricious Lass (Carry A Smile), who is her third dam.
All over the map
A measure of Toronado's broad impact as a sire to date is the geographical spread of his winners. As well as Ascot and Randwick, he also had winners at Hong Kong, Singapore and at Colac over the weekend. Having produced 118 winners from three crops to the track in the Northern Hemisphere, including five stakes winners, he has had 90 winners from his time at Swettenham Stud, again with five stakes winners.
Overall, he has had 51 winners in Australia this season, while he is building a strong reputation in Hong Kong as well, where he has had four winners from five starters, including Master Montaro, who on at Sha Tin on Sunday for David Hayes.
"I think that spread of winners is also reflective of the diversity of breeders. Last year, probably less than 50 per cent of mares that came to him were from Victoria. We’ve had an increasing numbers of New South Wales mares but also WA, South Australian, Queensland as well as Tassie mares. He's got the most geographically diverse range of mares going through," Matthews said.
"Everyone knows he can get good horses, but to have a few stars coming through on top of that, those people that have been able to get into him last year have got a pretty valuable pregnancy now and those with foals on the ground and yearlings to come will reap the benefits of them.
"Trainers can still afford them, but people who have bred them can get a good result. There is a huge market for them in Hong Kong. He's a valuable commodity as a trade prospect as well as getting good results in Australia."
Demand for Toronado at stud has soared in the past two seasons, with books of 197 in 2019 and then 210 in 2020. Matthews said that surge is backed up by a higher quality of mares.
Toronado (Ire) | Standing at Swettenham Stud
"Each year has been better and better and unfortunately last year we had to knock back a few such was the demand. We did select the best-quality mares and the best pedigrees. He would have covered two or three times the stakes-winning and stakes-producing mares than he would have in any other season," he said.
Among the mares to visit Toronado in 2020 was She's Got Gears (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), the dam of Masked Crusader.
